Since Thursday, September 26th, with another season of Glee underway, the spotlight is on show choirs once again! This time, however, Ohio State campus readers can gain insight on a group of crooners a little closer to home by meeting the latest campus celebrity, member and founder of The Ohio State University’s only campus show choir, Cort Harlow!
Name: Cort Harlow
Hometown: Bluffton, OH
Hobbies: Xbox, watching Gossip Girl on Netflix, Staying current in pop culture and world news
Major: Computer Science and Engineering
Year: Sophomore
HC: With Scarlet Script close to its one year anniversary, can you share with us the events leading up to implementation of this student organization?
CH: Last fall, early in the academic year, I was introduced to a guy named Jamie Downing, who had loved show choir in high school and wished to continue the activity in college, as did I. Together, we read the Ohio Union’s instructions on how to create a new student organization and got started on forming Ohio State’s Premiere Show Choir.
HC: Many freshmen are initially intimidated by the size of Ohio State’s campus and, as a result, don’t get involved in student organizations, let alone start one! Can you share the process and how you managed to cope while adjusting to your first year of school?
CH: Creating your own organization may sound somewhat intimidating, especially as a freshman, but it’s actually a lot easier than you might think. The majority of the time spent while forming is just figuring out all the various details that go into your organization. A constitution had to be made, a creation of an Executive Board of at least four people, and delegation of various responsibilities and tasks within the organization. But once you start the first step, the process just snowballs into the next steps ALMOST effortlessly.
HC: As mentioned, Scarlet Script is roughly one year old now! Can you share with us a few details regarding how your organization has grown within the past year?
CH: Forming a show choir created it’s own unique problems. For example, we are an auditioned group, but because Scarlet Script did not exist at the beginning of the year, we were not able to attend the involvement fair to get our name out there. Instead, we had to reply upon word of mouth and flyers to spread audition information to all of our prospective members. After our first round of auditions we had roughly sixteen people, but after auditions this fall semester we are more than double that as we had over sixty people audition! As time progresses it becomes increasingly clear which methods work and which don’t, as well as how to become more efficient as an organization. And being head of this large group that is quickly becoming increasingly visible and relevant on campus has been an extremely rewarding experience. I always tell people that Scarlet Script is my baby, and that getting to watch it grow up is incredible.
HC: It’s truly remarkable to see what immense strides you and your organization have made in just one year, especially considering you were just a freshman when you implemented the idea into action. In closing, do you have any advice you’d like to share with the readers of HerCampus?
CH: I’d just like to encourage all of [the readers] who may have an idea to form a sort of organization on campus to do so! It’s a ton of fun and you’ll meet a lot of great people who will surprise you in ways you never thought possible, as well as open your eyes to the diversity of Ohio State. Oh, and if you do form that organization, be sure to play Pterodactyl as an ice breaker! It’s a regular occurrence at Scarlet Script!
You can learn more about Scarlet Script as well as the other 1,000+ student organizations Ohio State has to offer (such as Her Campus!) on the Ohio Union website (ohiounion.osu.edu). There, information as to how to go about creating your own student organization is also available. Remember, don’t be intimidated by the registration process! As Cort said, “once you start the first step, the process just snowballs into the next…”